PTI
SOUTHAMPTON, JULY 31
A listless India crashed to a humiliating 266-run defeat against England in the third Test after an abject batting surrender allowed the hosts to level the five-match series 1-1 in Southampton on Thursday.
Needing to bat out the whole day with six wickets in hand in order to save the match, the Indian batting crumbled in the first session, getting bundled out for a meagre 178 in 66.4 overs in a completely lopsided contest at the Ageas Bowl.
It was one of the biggest defeats for India in terms of runs on English soil but not their worst, having lost a Test match by a mammoth 319 runs in Nottingham during the last tour in 2011.
For England, the victory meant an end to a winless streak of ten Test matches starting from the Ashes Down Under.
To add insult to the injury, it was part-time off-spinner Moeen Ali, who bamboozled the lower-order batsmen with his career-best haul of 6 for 67 in 20.4 overs.
Pacer Jimmy Anderson provided the first breakthrough in the morning when he had Rohit Sharma (6) nibbling at an away-going delivery to be caught by wicketkeeper Jos Buttler.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni (6) couldn’t replicate the resilience of the first innings as he was again a victim of an outswinger, edging to the keeper.
While Ajinkya Rahane waged a lone battle at the other end, he could do little as he saw wickets falling like nine pins at the other end.
Moeen, then got into the action as he got the ball to turn and jump from the rough as well as bowling the classical off-breaks. He cleaned up Ravindra Jadeja (15) with a delivery that pitched on the rough and came in to hit the off-stump.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar got out to a bat-pad catch with a delivery that spun in after pitching. His maiden ‘five-for’ was completed when a typical off-break cleaned up Mohammed Shami.
Rahane duly got his second half-century of the match hitting a brilliant square drive off Chris Woakes with no. 11 Pankaj Singh for company.
Pankaj was finally cleaned up by Moeen for his sixth scalp as he played inside the line.
The two teams now travel to Manchester for the fourth cricket Test to be played from August 7 at the Old Trafford.
It was the perfect win: Alastair Cook
Agencies
SOUTHAMPTON, JULY 31
CAPTAIN Alastair Cook hailed a ‘perfect win’ from his side as England ended a 10-match winless streak and levelled the Test series with an emphatic 266-run victory over India at the Ageas Bowl.
Cook’s position as captain has come under increasing scrutiny after series defeats to Australia and Sri Lanka but he answered some of his critics with an inspirational batting and captaincy performance in Southampton.
Scores of 95 and 70 not out helped England set India 445 for victory, a target they fell well short of as Moeen Ali’s career-best 6-67 saw the tourists bundled out for 178 before lunch on the final day.
Speaking to Sky Sports’ Michael Atherton at the post-match presentation, Cook, asked if he was relieved to finally taste victory, said, “I don’t think it’s ‘relieved’, ‘happy’ is a better word!
“It was a great performance from day one. We pretty much won every session, well we didn’t lose a session, and that’s credit to the guys. People stood up. Every single one of the XI who played has contributed to a great win. We wanted to get on the wicket first and bat well, getting 570 was a great start, then we bowled them out, put pressure on them, batted quickly then bowled them out cheaply so yes, it was the perfect game!”
Cook reserved special praise for Worcestershire spinner Ali, who ripped through India’s middle and lower order on the final day to leave the series fascinatingly-poised with two Tests remaining.
Cook added, “His bowling has come on leaps and bounds from the beginning of the summer. He’s worked really hard on it with the guys in the nets, telling him about the lines to bowl, which are a bit different in international cricket. He’s responded incredibly well and on a spinning wicket to get six-for to win the game you couldn’t ask for any more.” Commenting on his own performance, Cook was delighted to finally contribute significantly with the bat.
“I said at Lord’s that I thought my game was heading back in the right direction and with a 10 and a 20 it’s probably a strange thing to say but to back it up I was incredibly pleased,” he said.
“I was frustrated not to get a hundred in the first-innings but I’ll take 160 runs in a game.”
